On Mar 22, 10:40 am, "Harry K" wrote:
On Mar 22, 6:33 am, "cavedweller" wrote:



On Mar 22, 7:29 am, (Doug Miller) wrote:

In article . com, "cavedweller" wrote:

On Mar 21, 2:32 pm, wrote:
OK, I think something is wrong with the way my sump drains and I'm
looking for confirmation and ideas on how to fix it.

So my pump is mounted at the bottom of the well, with the float
triggering before the waterline gets up to the pipes from which the
drain tiles drain into the well. (all seems correct there so far).
My problem is that, as soon as the pump triggers and drains the well,
I see maybe 50% of that amount of water drain immediately back thru
the tiles (NOT back down the ejection pipe). This is not normal, is
it?

Well, it can be.

The drain tiles around the house hold a fair amount of water, while
the sump itself holds very little. When you pump the sump dry, there
might still be a lot of water in the tiles that finds its way
immediately into the sump.

That's not what's going on. Back up and re-read the original post: he said the
pump kicks on before the water ever rises up that high -- therefore, what's
coming back into the sump is the water he just pumped out.

I quoted it.

It tells me that the floats are set so that the pump comes on before
the sump is full.

I presume his "back thru" means into the sump.

He asserts also that it's NOT coming back down the discharge pipe but
if he's so sure about the 50% number, I wonder. Could it be there's
no check valve in the discharge?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

You may have quoted it but obviously didn't understand it.

I understood it well enough that I believe he could have his float set
so that the pump comes on too soon, and shuts of too early.


Per his words the drain tile line into the sump are above the highest
sump water level.

He sees the backflow coming 'from the drain tile" not the pump discharge line.


I know what he says. I'll suggest that your "backflow" might really
be continuing inflow. I'm also suggesting that he might possibly be
mistaken and that the surge after the pump stops is really coming from
the discharge line.

I have a perimeter drain situation where, at the wrong time of year,
the pump will cycle ever 30 seconds in my sump if I let it. I
therefore set the float so that the perimeter tile fills (sump level
mostly covering the outlet) and then the pump empties the tile and
shuts off as the sump level drops just below the tile inlet.

So I leave a few gallons in the bottom of the sump. Who cares?

In my case, I know what the pitch of the tile feed to the sump is and
how it relates to the level of the perimeter drains. I also know
where my pump discharge goes. These are two things that neither the
OP nor any of the responders knows for sure. That's why I suggested
he try resetting the float to see what happens.

Of course, unless he checks back in we'll all just have to continue to
speculate and theorize.